"Now we return to business!" said Judsi.
We went into the neighbouring field through a gap in the hedge. Gaudéreaux bent down and picked up a clod of earth. He sniffed at it.
"Pooh!" he said. "It ain't up to ours!"
The lieutenant heard him, and reproved him for it.
"It's the same thing, it's French soil. It's what we are going to be killed for."
Did he count on producing an effect? The other gazed at him, dumbfounded!
A little walk indeed! I chewed the word with rage during the seven hours that this march lasted. Did they think it was the right way...? The right way to discourage the men!
No respite except the hourly halts, and they managed to cheat over them, by not whistling until the hour, or an hour and five minutes was up, or cutting them short by two minutes!
If there was one thing that astonished me it was the goodwill and endurance, which I saw manifested all round me. "Grouse," the first day? Oh no, that was out of the question! A praiseworthy resolution! When going through the villages, the men found a way, even when absolutely done up, of putting on a spurt, and making eyes at all the pretty girls!